08-01-2008, 12:54 PM
Im watching a Time Team episode about the ancient greeks, and its talking about Syracuse and its nearly imprenetrable walls.
It says the walls were lined with catapults, ballistas, scorpios, oversized bows and so on. But it also mentions a large 'claw like' crane the defenders used to drag enemy ships into the rocks. There was also a mention of a sort of mirror weapon, which used hundreds of bronze shield to set enemy ships and sails alight.
An experiment conducted actually did set the small trireme model on fire, but I think it was deceiving. Although only one hundred mirrors were used, they were the size of the ship itself. Although the walls could have had many more than 100 defenders and their shields, their size balanced this.
So what of this is true and what is speculation? I know the catapults and so on are true, but what about this ''crane''? Was it a land-based corvus which just went straight through ships? And what about the mirrors? Myth reconstructed through modern optimism?
It says the walls were lined with catapults, ballistas, scorpios, oversized bows and so on. But it also mentions a large 'claw like' crane the defenders used to drag enemy ships into the rocks. There was also a mention of a sort of mirror weapon, which used hundreds of bronze shield to set enemy ships and sails alight.
An experiment conducted actually did set the small trireme model on fire, but I think it was deceiving. Although only one hundred mirrors were used, they were the size of the ship itself. Although the walls could have had many more than 100 defenders and their shields, their size balanced this.
So what of this is true and what is speculation? I know the catapults and so on are true, but what about this ''crane''? Was it a land-based corvus which just went straight through ships? And what about the mirrors? Myth reconstructed through modern optimism?
